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We all know the economy has devastated many people and organizations but to crush one of the basic learning, literacy, and community services — yes libraries — is really unimaginable. So many colleagues and friends have felt the effects, but there will be more. Check out this article about the budget crunch for libraries in the US.

So many of our leaders, authors, speakers have known community libraries as a safe haven and education hub that you would think they would step up to the plate to find creative solutions to funding community libraries, the cornerstone of an informed democracy. Author, David Baldacci (I’ve written about him before) is very impressive with his Wish You Well Foundation which has funded many family literacy programs. But we need many, many more foundations and other funding sources for libraries.

Many information professionals have serious music backgrounds, so I’ve been thinking that we need a rock concert to raise funds for libraries — it’s been done for famine, natural disasters, so why not human disasters? What do you think? Could we get it going?

This article, Beyond Facebook and LinkedIn, talks about social networking sites on the web that have more specific purposes or narrower audiences. It reminded me of Bill Drew‘s Library 2.0 Ning community of almost 4000 members. So many communities, so little time!